Adult Dyslexia Checklist

Each person with dyslexia has a unique profile of strengths and weaknesses. Indicators of dyslexia differ at different ages and depending on the environment, e.g. college or the workplace. The following check list may help to identify signs of a dyslexic difficulty. A psycho-educational assessment will be required to make a diagnosis. The check list may help to confirm the suspicions that there is a difficulty present and therefore help in making the decision to obtain an assessment.

When looking at the lists of indicators, remember the following:

No one will have all the indicators.

Many individuals will have several of the indicators.

Some indicators are more common than others.

The number of indicators observed in an individual does not indicate whether the dyslexia is mild, moderate or severe.

Consider the following list and see if you answer yes to many of these questions.

Do you dislike reading aloud?

Is reading new material difficult?

Does it take you a long time to read a book?

Do you sometimes pronounce words incorrectly?

Do you have problems with spelling?

Did you have difficulty at school and did you do less well in written exams, than you feel you should have?

Do you find it much harder to put your thoughts in writing than in words?

Do you find it hard to write letters, reports, or even to take phone messages clearly?

Do you have problems with sentence construction and punctuation?

Do you get phone numbers wrong?

Do you confuse ‘left’ and ‘right’?

Is your handwriting hard to read?

Do you find it hard to see the mistakes that you have made in written work?

Do you find it hard to remember things in sequence?

Do you find it hard to remember new facts, names etc.?

Do you get confused with times and dates and sometimes miss appointments?

Do you find it hard to learn by ‘ordinary’ teaching methods?

Do you forget quickly rather than learn slowly?

Does someone else in your family have similar learning problems?

Most people will say ‘yes’ to some of these questions, but some people will say ‘yes’ to many of them. If you are one of those people and you think that you might have dyslexia, then you may want to have an assessment.

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DAI activities are part-funded by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (Scheme to Support National Organisations 2016-2019 administered by Pobal), the Special Education Section of the Department of Education and Skills, SOLAS and KWETB.